HTC continues to be true to the company’s word regarding bootloader unlocking tools. Through HTCDev, the Taiwanese company now offers its bootloader unlocker for the Desire HD, Wildfire, DROID Incredible, Desire Z, T-Mobile G2, Aria, ChaCha and Status. Even if a handset hasn’t received official support, the tool might still work. When the trend of locking bootladers began in 2010, HTC was one of many companies to promise unlocking tools and devices in the future, however, they are one of the few to actually have kept the promise. Unlike HTC, Motorola has continued to release devices with locked and encrypted bootloaders, placing the blame on the carriers and further frustrating a number of customers. More →

AT&T on Monday announced pre-order availability of its first “Facebook Phone,” the HTC Status. Social butterflies on the nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier can pre-order the sleek smartphone for $49.99 on contract beginning immediately, and the phone will arrive in stores this Sunday, July 17th. Aimed squarely at young Facebook fanatics, the HTC Status features Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, a QWERTY keypad, a 5-megapixel camera and a dedicated Facebook sharing button. “We can’t wait to put the HTC Status in the hands of our young customers who will waste no time tapping into Facebook to update their friends,” said AT&T Senior VP of Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Jeff Bradley in a statement. “We’re also really pleased to offer the hottest new smartphone at an affordable price to this important, socially savvy youth market.” Also of note, Best Buy will be the exclusive purveyor of the HTC Status in a special limited edition mauve color when the phone launches next week. AT&T’s full press release follows below. More →

AT&T on Wednesday announced a smartphone BGR readers knew was coming — the HTC Status. AT&T’s version of the HTC ChaCha is now official, and it features Facebook integration deeper than any other phone on the market, barring the HTC Salsa, of course. We’ve already seen it live and in person, and we’ve handled the international version personally so we can say that the build is surprisingly solid for a mid-tier phone. Spec highlights include a 2.6-inch touchscreen display above a full QWERTY keypad, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, HTC’s Sense UI, an 800MHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera, a secondary front-facing VGA camera for video chat and a 1,250 mAh battery. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced. More →

BGR has exclusively confirmed with a trusted source that HTC’s ChaCha, the company’s first device with dedicated Facebook button and deep Facebook integration, will be launching on AT&T in the coming weeks. According to our source, the launch could take place as soon as one week from now. Following some troubles HTC has had with the device’s name, the QWERTY-equipped Facebook phone will land on AT&T as the HTC Status. Truth be told, anything would sound better than ChaCha to us. Additionally, we have separately confirmed with HTC that despite earlier reports to the contrary, the other handset with dedicated Facebook button — HTC’s Salsa — won’t be hitting AT&T in the near future, if at all.

If you’re the owner of a Samsung Focus, HTC Surround, or LG Quantum, and are still feeling a little dejected by our last NoDo-update report, cheer up. It looks like the status of the first major Windows Phone update for AT&T users has been updated with a more specific time frame. Previously, the NoDo upgrade for the aforementioned trio of handsets was tagged listed as being in the “Testing” phase. Microsoft explains that in this stage, the code is “undergoing mobile operator network and quality tests” — a software update black hole, of sorts. Recently, Microsoft amended its official Windows Update page to let AT&T Windows Phone users know that the three handsets will likely exit testing in “early April 2011.” After the testing stage is complete, handsets move to the scheduling phase — which typically takes less than 10 business days — and after that, the update begins flowing to handsets. So cheer up AT&T Windows Phone users, your update is — fingers crossed — on the way. More →

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that its first major Windows Phone update — dubbed NoDo — is being pushed to users’ handsets. Sixteen Windows Phone devices from over a dozen countries have, or will have, the update — which finally brings copy & paste functionality — in the coming days. Users in the United States, however, still have a bit of waiting to do. According to a new status page setup by the company, T-Mobile’s pair of Windows Phones — the Dell Venue Pro and HTC HD7 — are currently in the “scheduling” phase. This procedure typically takes “10 days or less,” according to Microsoft, at which point the update will begin rolling out to handsets. AT&T’s trio of Windows Phones — the Samsung Focus, the LG Quantum, and HTC Surround — are currently in the “testing” stage. Microsoft explains that phones with this distinction are “undergoing mobile operator network and quality tests,” but does not provide an estimated time of completion for this step. Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, at one point championed the fact that updates to the Windows Phone operating system would be delivered by his company, not wireless carriers. While Microsoft may be the one delivering the bits, it looks like U.S. mobile operators are still finding ways to slow things down. The waiting continues… More →

HTC announced two new smartphones at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday that are equipped with dedicated Facebook buttons. The HTC Chacha and HTC Salsa are each Android-based smartphones that are the cell phone maker’s first offerings to feature its new enhanced Facebook experience. To the chagrin of countless Facebook addicts across the country, however, HTC made no mention of U.S. carrier partners when it announced the devices this morning. Fortunately, AT&T has reportedly confirmed that it will carry two Facebook phones from HTC, though it did not say specifically that they would be the Chacha and Salsa. The carrier did confirm that they will feature similar capabilities along with the same context-aware Facebook buttons, however. “In the U.S., AT&T and HTC are exclusively bringing this unique user experience to the market later this year,” an AT&T spokesperson told Mobilized. “It goes without saying this is part of our commitment to have the industry’s best Android portfolio this year.” More →

You know that saying, “give and take?” Someone should tell U.S. wireless carriers that ignoring 50% of that adage sort of makes you look greedy. BGR has learned that beginning on April 1st, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint will increase the requirements customers must meet to qualify for early hardware upgrades via the Premier program. This news comes just days after the company announced a new $10 “premium data fee” for all smartphone customers — set to take effect on January 30th. Hit the break for all the details. More →

Ever wonder just how many transactions social networking site Facebook handles in 20 minutes? No? Us either. However, a recently published report from analytics company Democracy UK — that describes exactly what happens in the aforementioned period of time on the site — has piqued our interest. On average:

1 million links are shared, 1.32 million photos are tagged, 1.48 million event invitations are sent out, 1.59 million wall posts are published, 1.85 million status updates are posted, 2.72 million photos are uploaded, 4.63 million messages are sent, and 10.21 million comments hit the site.

All of that, and more, happens every twenty minutes. Yikes. The published report also mentioned that Lady Gaga was the most Liked celebrity — Justin Bieber ranked an anemic 9th, just below the 8th place celebrity… Lil Wayne? More →

Here’s an update on the UPS iPad deliveries: we’ve been told that it will be virtually impossible to have one delivered prior to Saturday and your shipping status doesn’t mean squat. Here’s why… There are iPad shipments sitting in your local UPS location right now. Yes, they are there. Right now. The issue? Apple has hired an outside security agency to monitor all shipments from the regional distribution centers to the local hubs, and at the local hubs, the cages (where they hold the packages) are under 24/7 guard by the outside security agency. Apple did the same thing when they used FedEx for iPhone shipments, and they also had the same security company literally sleeping overnight at AT&T stores when they got iPhones the day before launch day.

Don’t worry if your tracking info still shows the package hasn’t left China, it’s probably only 10 miles from you, sitting comfortably under the watchful eyes of Top Flight security.

Microsoft may be biting the hand that feeds them by not paying developers who are selling applications on Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile. An increasing number of developers are expressing their angst at Microsoft and its Marketplace payment system which is supposedly not sending out payments for eligible accounts. Some accounts are reported to be incorrectly labeled as “Not eligible for revenue payout” when they have met the $200 payout threshold and other accounts, though labeled as “Eligible for revenue payout”, are not receiving any payouts due to mistakes within the payment system. In the latter case, much confusion exists with the “Eligible for revenue payout” status which applies to accounts that have already received a payment and are setup to receive future payments once the $200 threshold has been reached. More →